Indeed a rarity. Thank you. I wonder if it is true 4 track or did they electronically enhance the stereo version.

Also of interest;-

FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS - MFSL 1-059
This was a special release by Mobile Fidelity Sound Laboraties in 1982. MFSL leased the original master recording tapes from RCA and pressed the album on quality vinyl in JAPAN.The album was mastered at half speed, giving it a sound that is said to be amazingly clear.

Tue Aug 16, 2005 10:01 am

KiwiAlan wrote:FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS - MFSL 1-059This was a special release by Mobile Fidelity Sound Laboraties in 1982. MFSL leased the original master recording tapes from RCA and pressed the album on quality vinyl in JAPAN.The album was mastered at half speed, giving it a sound that is said to be amazingly clear.

Yes, "amazingly clear" is the right word. Listen to the acoustic guitar on "In the ghetto" from the MFSL release, there's an analog-like clarity to that instrument that is simply unmatched on any other version of that song that I've ever heard.

Tue Aug 16, 2005 1:15 pm

Correct me if I'm wrong, and it happens quite a lot .. but didn't you have to have a specific quadraphonic amp to to get the quad effect from the albums?

Tue Aug 16, 2005 2:15 pm

KevinK wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, and it happens quite a lot .. but didn't you have to have a specific quadraphonic amp to to get the quad effect from the albums?

Yes, with 4 speakers too! One in each corner of the room.
But they give great stereo effect on stereo equipment.
I have the Japanese "On stage" in Quadrophonic and it "sounds" different than the stereo release. Especially if you listen by headphones.

Tue Aug 16, 2005 2:40 pm

KevinK wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, and it happens quite a lot .. but didn't you have to have a specific quadraphonic amp to to get the quad effect from the albums?

Yes you had. Thing was, there were several multichannel formats like this and quadrophonic didn't prevail. So you bought the equipment and a year later or so there weren't any more records released ... Just like it is with SACD today ...

There were also 8-tracks of "Memphis", "Today" and TTWII, I guess. I saw an ad for those recently but cannot remember where ... Was it in the FTD Today booklet?

Tue Aug 16, 2005 5:06 pm

Got the Aloha in quadrophonic!

Tue Aug 16, 2005 5:49 pm

I have an MFSL copy of "That's The Way It Is". When it come to sound those guys do great stuff !

Tue Aug 16, 2005 8:01 pm

It sure would be nice for the newly-revived Mobile Fidelity to
tackle some Elvis records again!

From Elvis in Memphis
On Stage, Feb 1970
That’s the Way It Is
As recorded at Madison Square Garden

The 8 tracks are the preferred way to obtain discreet mixes of all four tracks, as RCA’s way of pressing QUAD LP’s was a matrix system, and did not really produce very discreet tracks on playback. Japan also released the US 8-track only titles on LP as well. The original multi-tracks were used to remix all quad releases (although Aloha used to be more common in the quad mix), and the mixes sometimes differ greatly from the stereo versions we are all familiar with.

As for the Mobile Fidelity issues, From Elvis in Memphis (LP) and TTWII (CD) sound great if you can find them. However, Mobile Fidelity is no longer run by the same people who used to run the company, and recent releases do NOT sound any better than the regular CD issues.

In theory, it would be an easy thing to release the existing quad tapes* as a DVD-Audio, or SACD multichannel release, but that sounds WAY too easy, now doesn’t it?

*(DTS multicahnnel issues of McCartney’s Band On the Run, Venus and Mars, as well as other releases by other artists used the original 70’s quad tapes AS IS to release multichannel surround material.)

Wed Aug 17, 2005 10:15 am

Young'un Sound wrote:The 8 tracks are the preferred way to obtain discreet mixes of all four tracks, as RCA’s way of pressing QUAD LP’s was a matrix system, and did not really produce very discreet tracks on playback.

No! RCA's (and JVC's) CD-4 system was discrete four channels. Although setting up the CD-4 demodulator (not a matrix decoder) was a little difficult, once the playback system was set up correctly the separation between channels was better than 40db between front/back pairs, with the left-right separation determined by the cartridge.

The CD-4 concept was something similar to stereo FM doubled - stereo FM being a main mono channel with a difference channel modulated above it; CD-4 doubled that using the stereo LP channels as the base. The CD-4 records required a special cartridge with extended response and a special stylus to read the frequencies up to and over 40kHz. It played fine in stereo with a stereo cartridge, but a regular stereo cartridge generally ground off the modulated "channels" in the groove. (This means that if you find a CD-4 LP which has been played several times with a stereo cartridge, the CD-4 modulated information is probably gone.)

All the 4-channel mixes are US mixes (quad album masters).

All Elvis from American Sound on was recorded for possible release in quad. A quad mix of "From Elvis Presley Boulevard" was prepared and mastered and should still exist with the others.

I've suggested many times on this forum that these original 4 channel mixes be released on DVD-A 5.1, as-is with a silent 5.1 center channel (and a silent .1).

For some reason, the quad aspect of Elvis' last 8 years of recordings is almost totally ignored by everyone.

Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:59 pm

Well, thanks for talking it up anyway. (Boy, I remember being
under a 1000 posts... )

A lot of this is beyond me and my ears but sounds interesting!

Wed Aug 17, 2005 11:31 pm

Dave the Rave wrote:Got the Aloha in quadrophonic!

Believe it or not, I have a sealed copy of the quadrophinic Aloha. I already had one so I just never opened it.

bpd

Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:30 am

I actually had gotten all the Quad 8-tracks on Ebay over time...and a Quad player too. hooked them up to Pro Tools and got rid of the strings and voices as much as possible and mixed them down...unfortunately the tapes were so old that they had a lot of noise on them.

Axe

Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:43 am

Axeman wrote:I actually had gotten all the Quad 8-tracks on Ebay over time...and a Quad player too. hooked them up to Pro Tools and got rid of the strings and voices as much as possible and mixed them down...unfortunately the tapes were so old that they had a lot of noise on them.

Axe

Would you mind sending me an mp3 of one of your Elvis mixes?

I'll glady trade you one of mine!

Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:45 am

ohnono

Thanks for the correction. I was not aware that the RCA quad LP’s were so easily damaged if played with a stereo cartridge (and regarding the matrix issue). I guess that means that most copies of the Aloha LP in quad are now unplayable in quad due to the people who did not have quad systems even during quad’s short lived life. Having used several quad systems (LP, 8 track, reel to reel), I was always partial to the tape based systems due to ease of use.

I totally agree with you that these should be released AS IS in a surround format. The quad mixes are wonderful. It is nice to hear from someone who has enjoyed the quad releases as much as I have over the years. It is a shame that this aspect of Elvis’ released output gets so overlooked. Unless the remix sessions are covered in Tunzi’s Sessions III (which I don’t have yet) , I am not even aware of any documentation regarding the remixing of the quad releases. How did you find out about the remixing of "From EP Blvd" and the remainder of the American Sound sessions? I am always interested in finding out any tidbits regarding Elvis in quad.

bpd- better take good care of that sealed quad!

Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:48 am

Young'un Sound wrote:ohnono

Thanks for the correction. I was not aware that the RCA quad LP’s were so easily damaged if played with a stereo cartridge (and regarding the matrix issue). I guess that means that most copies of the Aloha LP in quad are now unplayable in quad due to the people who did not have quad systems even during quad’s short lived life. Having used several quad systems (LP, 8 track, reel to reel), I was always partial to the tape based systems due to ease of use.

I totally agree with you that these should be released AS IS in a surround format. The quad mixes are wonderful. It is nice to hear from someone who has enjoyed the quad releases as much as I have over the years. It is a shame that this aspect of Elvis’ released output gets so overlooked. Unless the remix sessions are covered in Tunzi’s Sessions III (which I don’t have yet) , I am not even aware of any documentation regarding the remixing of the quad releases. How did you find out about the remixing of "From EP Blvd" and the remainder of the American Sound sessions? I am always interested in finding out any tidbits regarding Elvis in quad.

bpd- better take good care of that sealed quad!

could you (please) be a lil more specific in explaining jus how much does the Quad mix differ from the regular Stereo mix?

Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:10 am

minkahed-

To list all the differences between the quad and the stereo would entail a track by track comparison to how the originals were mixed.
All of the quad mixes differ from their stereo counterparts. Since the engineers had to remix from the original multitracks to create the quad mixes, there are always going to be minor differences anytime you remix. In this case the engineers were remixing for the recordings to be played back on four speakers instead of just two. In general, Elvis and the core band members form a stereo image across the front two speakers, and the overdubs, strings, and background vocals form a stereo image across the rear two speakers. (Promised Land and Today fit that description the best.) The live LP’s are trickier to describe as (for example) MSG has the band up front and the orchestra in the back, and On Stage has all the instruments equally distributed among all four speakers. Some things really stand out as unusual such as different between song patter on On Stage, and an edited version of Proud Mary on MSG. Patch it Up from TTWII is the studio version, instead of the live version just to mention another major difference. Hopefully that helps in giving you some idea of how the quad releases sounded, and how they are different on at least a basic level.

Thu Aug 18, 2005 8:25 am

Young'un Sound wrote:minkahed-

To list all the differences between the quad and the stereo would entail a track by track comparison to how the originals were mixed. All of the quad mixes differ from their stereo counterparts. Since the engineers had to remix from the original multitracks to create the quad mixes, there are always going to be minor differences anytime you remix. In this case the engineers were remixing for the recordings to be played back on four speakers instead of just two. In general, Elvis and the core band members form a stereo image across the front two speakers, and the overdubs, strings, and background vocals form a stereo image across the rear two speakers. (Promised Land and Today fit that description the best.) The live LP’s are trickier to describe as (for example) MSG has the band up front and the orchestra in the back, and On Stage has all the instruments equally distributed among all four speakers. Some things really stand out as unusual such as different between song patter on On Stage, and an edited version of Proud Mary on MSG. Patch it Up from TTWII is the studio version, instead of the live version just to mention another major difference. Hopefully that helps in giving you some idea of how the quad releases sounded, and how they are different on at least a basic level.

Thank You for the elaboration.

I would love to get my hands on jus one of the quad Lp's and check it out for my self.